SF Stairways: Shortest, Longest, and Steepest

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There are over 900 stairways in San Franciso. Some are simple wooden stairs, others beautiful climbs covered in mosaics, or utilitarian concrete steps. It’s incredibly charming and a delightful surprise to many visitors. Bay Curious listener George Krause fell in love withe stairways between photo shoots and wanted to know which are the shortest, longest and steepest stairways in the city. Many of you are stair-curious too! Additional Resources: Stairways Crisscross the Hills of San Francisco. Here's Why People Love Them Read the transcript for this episode How the Filbert Steps Came to Be an Oasis in San Francisco Where Did the Wild Parrots of San Francisco Come From? Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Gabriela Glueck. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Gabriela Glueck and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Olivia Allen-Price, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and everyone on Team KQED.

Transcript

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0:00.0	from KQED. Almost every day when I get home from work, I strap on a baby carrier and I take my
0:07.8	one-year-old daughter, Esme, out for a walk. So Esme and I are walking up the Franconia street steps
0:15.8	in Bernal Heights. What do you think? Look at that, Esme. You can see the fog coming in. Isn't it beautiful?
0:29.6	Some of the stairs we take have swings on them. Others are beautifully cared for with terraced gardens.
0:40.3	We love your steps. They're so beautiful.
0:42.3	All have sweeping views.
0:46.3	At the top of the hill now.
0:49.3	San Francisco has countless winding pathways like this,
0:59.2	from simple wooden stairs to mosaic climes and utilitarian concrete steps.
1:04.9	It's incredibly charming and a delightful surprise to many visitors.
1:10.5	Every neighborhood in San Francisco's got these hidden stairway walks, Castro and Patero Hill and
1:19.0	Excelsior and you name it. They're everywhere. So it's like a free, fun thing to do, you know.
1:26.7	Our question asker this week, George Krause, is a photographer.
1:30.4	He often comes to the city for work and likes to spend time on the stairs.
1:34.2	Between shoots and San Francisco, that's basically what I did.
1:37.7	Ride public transportation to a neighborhood that I had not been to before
1:42.9	and then just walk the streets with my camera
1:46.5	doing street photography.
1:48.6	San Francisco is one of the hiliest cities in the world, and stairs are often the most
1:53.7	direct way to get from A to B. All this got George wondering, what is the longest stairway in San Francisco?
2:01.6	What is the shortest?
2:03.6	What is the steepest?
	...

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